Dreams
by Phoenix089
Summary: When your time comes to an end, you can view that which is truly important to you with startling clarity. UlquiHime. Inspired by Disney's Tangled. Tangled-spoilers.


I asked this question at the UlquiHime Bleach-Asylum-FC (_What's a movie/book quote or situation you'd really like to see happen with UlquiHime?_) ... And ... Well ... _this_ is the image that came to mind for me =D

**Disclaimer**: Tangled is property of Disney. Ulquiorra and Orihime are the property of Kubo Tite ... I'm just meshing the two together to satisfy my fangirl fancies.

**Spoiler alert! **The inspiration for this was a scene near the end of Tangled, so, if you haven't seen the movie yet ... ... Don't read this. It spoils the end.

Other than that, I hope you enjoy!

(Fic also found on my Livejournal)

* * *

As he slumped to the ground, one thing was for certain – he was dying. Ulquiorra Schiffer, hollow for a far longer time than he could remember, and caged in a Gigai for over three years now, had been injured fatally while in that accursed Gigai, and he was going to die because of it.

That didn't stop him from glaring up at the hollow that had injured him though. Had he actually remembered to bring those 'soul-candy' things with him, he wouldn't be in this situation – He would be slicing the hollow up with cold indifference, and the creature wouldn't even have had time to realise that an ex-fellow was the one killing it.

Blood was staining his hand and clothes, but Ulquiorra refused to move from his position. Murcielalgo was in his hand even if the sword didn't really respond to him while he was in the Gigai, and the hollow swayed in front of him and the prone form behind like a cobra deciding which prey to go after first.

Never before had Ulquiorra thought his heart was going to stop beating in horror, but as Orihime had been thrown into the wall by a hollow intent on devouring her, he understood what it meant for time to stand still, and when she hadn't stirred from the blow … Ulquiorra thought his still uncertain heart _had_ ceased to beat.

As it was, the organ was still thumping madly in his chest with worry – why didn't she wake? Ulquiorra's emerald eyes narrowed to dangerous slits as he considered the possibility that the blow had been too much for her frail human body.

The snake-hollow before him seemed to finally make a decision, for it stopped swaying, and, seconds later, lunged for Ulquiorra's defiant, albeit failing, body.

The ex-Espada didn't even hesitate, in that moment he couldn't feel the fang imbedded in his stomach. He simply side-stepped the head lunging towards him and thrust upwards with Murcielalgo, the blade eating through the hollow's flesh and bone until it broke through the other side of the still snapping jaws.

He held the position for a few moments, and then the hollow began to chip apart, purified by the modified blade of Murcielalgo. His face still as impassive as ever, Ulquiorra looked over to Orihime with concern. She was still not moving.

Ulquiorra hardly even managed to take a step towards her limp form before his vision swam and his knees buckled beneath him. _Damn it_, he mentally swore. He hadn't realised a snake-hollow's fangs could be poisonous, or was his Gigai simply that weak?

His breath coming out in sharp gasps as he lay on the dirt road, Ulquiorra thought it inanely irritating he couldn't even ascertain if the Woman was alright before he died. The thought made his frown increase.

If he was to die there, what would happen to his soul? He was a hollow by nature, and yet … He wasn't a hollow anymore, thanks to the heart Orihime had given him. What was going to happen to him after this faux-body gave out then, his soul trapped within as it was?

In the distance he thought he heard someone call out his name, but it was so hard to focus on anything now. He wasn't given the choice not to however as he felt hands take hold of his shoulders and jerk his body up, the frantic hands running over his face.

"No! No! Stay with me Ulquiorra!" Ah, so it was the Woman then. Ulquiorra managed to force his fading consciousness focus on her, and couldn't help but feel mild curiosity as he realised she, yet again, had tears in her eyes. That was both times he'd "died" that she'd been teary. Her mouth was moving, but Ulquiorra couldn't really hear what she was saying.

He meant to tell her exactly that, when his thoughts were drawn, inexplicably, to the conversation they'd had the night before.

"_The best part about dreams," Orihime said, a smile on her face as she spoke. She always wore that expression when she explained something to Ulquiorra, it was as if she enjoyed helping him understand her world – their world, now. "Is that once you see one complete … You get to find a new one."_

_ Much to Ulquiorra's surprise, she suddenly looked away from him, a pink hue to her cheeks. She'd been doing that a lot more lately, and Ulquiorra couldn't help but wonder why, but at that point, his thoughts were too busy toying with the concept of that which she'd just explained to him._

_ Humans had goals they sought to attain, calling them 'dreams'. When they exerted their efforts in seeing a dream come true, it was a pleasurable thing, something that filled them with a feeling of accomplishment. Ulquiorra hadn't realised that the concept was a never-ending one._

_ More so, he wondered if he ever had such a thing. Before Aizen, he'd simply done as he'd pleased. While with Aizen, he still did as he saw fit, though he also deigned to help Aizen's goals – were they the Ex-Shinigami's 'dreams'? – come true._

_After moving to the human world however … He'd simply wanted to remain with the Woman…_

With alarming clarity, Ulquiorra realised, he had unknowingly adhered to the human concept of a dream, and, with his Gigai failing, he thought it imperative that Orihime was aware of such a thing.

Forcing the growing darkness away, if only for a moment, Ulquiorra found Orihime was repeating her healing phrase over, and over, but the pins had been destroyed months before he'd arrived.

"Woman," he breathed, too low it seemed for she continued to whisper the healing incantation as if it were a mantra – a mantra that could actually work. "_Orihime,_" Ulquiorra said, finding strength enough to speak firmly this time.

Orihime hiccuped before answering, "What?" she asked, her voice thick with emotions Ulquiorra was loath to hear. If there had been one thing he'd learnt on his own whilst in the human world, it was that Orihime feeling sorrow, or anything other than joy, was an undesirable thing to him, and he'd done everything in his power to prevent her from _ever_ sounding the way she did now.

He didn't have strength enough to prevent those emotions now though, he needed to convey to her his message. "_You_ were my dream," he told her, and her reaction was not one he'd expected from the statement. She'd made it sound as if dreams were things to be nurtured, and cherished.

As she looked down at him then, the tears that had been filling her eyes slipped over the edge and began their descent down her cheeks – had he made her unhappy then? His final moments in this world, and he made her _cry_. Ulquiorra couldn't help the indignant frustration he felt at very thought.

The words that Orihime spoke next were at war with her reaction though, "And you were mine – You have been for _years_," she sobbed, her body curling in on itself enough so that her forehead came to rest on his chest.

And then Ulquiorra felt the Gigai give it's final breaths and it was as if he were floating in a sea of darkness. So it seemed death was to be an eternity of pondering over Orihime's contradictory words and actions.

He felt a warmth on his cheek though, and Ulquiorra looked up at nothing in particular, wondering if his consciousness was still connected to the Gigai. He supposed he must have been because he could hear the cries that were ripping themselves from Orihime's throat, and Ulquiorra cringed with emotions he wasn't familiar with as they echoed around him.

Moment's later, an uncomfortable "Ummmm," was heard, and Ulquiorra recognised it to be that of that lazy shinigami Uruhara, and he couldn't help but feel irritation at the arrival of _that_ guy, considering the situation.

Orihime's sob's reduced to a sniffling as she asked him, "What? What is it?" her tone was unusually sharp, and Ulquiorra cocked his head curiously, wondering at the kind of expression she might have worn at that moment.

Seconds later, he felt a pressure take hold of him from the top of his crown, and Ulquiorra was yanked out of the darkness – and out of the Gigai it seemed, for he instantly heard Murcielalgo cursing him for being so foolish.

Ulquiorra forced the demon's cries of outrage into the back of his mind however as he looked instead at Orihime. The woman's hands were clutching at the bloodied shirt on Ulquiorra's Gigai, and she was looking up at him with wide, teary eyes.

He barely had time to realise that before she'd jumped to her feet and ran at him, a peculiar expression on her face. Ulquiorra almost sighed, wondering what it was he'd done to warrant a slap this time, when he instead felt her arms lock around his neck, pulling him as tight against her body as was possible, and at the feel of Orihime pressing herself into him with as much force as she could, Ulquiorra's eyes opened with surprise.

It was belatedly he realised she was hugging him, something he'd seen other humans do in the various movies Orihime made him watch, or in the street. And so, uncertainly, Ulquiorra wrapped his arms around her waist awkwardly, pulling her form flush against his, his eyes closing of their own volition as the smell of her overpowered his senses.

"Don't do that again, Ulquiorra-kun! If I hadn't been nearby, you would have been stuck in that Gigai for a _very_ long time indeed!" Uruhara sang, and Ulquiorra glared over at the sandal-wearing Shinigami with as much force as he could muster through the mass of Orihime's hair – her arms tightened around his neck as Uruhara spoke.

Eventually, the pawn-shop owner cleared his throat and walked away. Orihime was still holding onto Ulquiorra as if she didn't want to let go – and he couldn't say that he wanted her to release him either. Her shoulders were shuddering though, and Ulquiorra suspected his coat was going to be stained with her tears.

"Don't you ever do that to me again," Orihime whispered, her voice still thick with emotion.

Ulquiorra didn't say anything, because he knew that, if it happened again … He would still rather die than allow her to. For now, he was just wondering at which point Orihime had become someone he would sacrifice himself for, and he supposed it was probably at the same time she'd become his 'dream'.

For that moment, however, he didn't really care for the 'when' or 'why'. He simply held her tighter against him, glad that she 'was'.

* * *

You didn't think I'd actually let Ulquiorra die, did you? Shame-on-you!

Ah ... Yeah ... I _loved_ that scene in Tangled, and it nearly had me in tears, okay? Besides which ... If there was _any_ movie moment I'd want to see with Ulquihime ... It's the whole "You were my new dream, and you were mine" one ... It was just ... And they're just ...

Comments are, of course, appreciated =3


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